The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Prior to the prevalence of the Internet, gamers relied on Nintendo Power for video-game previews, news, reviews, walk-throughs and entertainment. In 1992, the monthly magazine serialized legendary manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori's adaptation of Super Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Collected here, the 12-issue series is a trip almost 25 years in the past as the story loosely follows the game, introducing new characters and plot twists. It's interesting to see Link portrayed as a bumbling punchline, which was common for Nintendo heroes in the early 1990s, when a seemingly endless stream of slapstick cartoons filled the after-school airwaves and pro wrestler “Captain Lou” Albano played Mario in a live-action series. Ishinomori makes the Zelda story his own with enough inspiration from the game that it starts an itch to fire up the old console like only a classic video game can. The real nostalgia comes for subscribers who remember anxiously checking the mail, waiting for the next issue to continue the story—free of spoilers or trolls crapping over everything on anonymous forums. More than anything, the comic series is a video-game time capsule (A Link to the Past, if you will) that not only recalls the games of years past, but a long-gone gaming community and atmosphere as well.